On This Day — 18 February

2021

Perseverance, a Mars rover designed to explore Jezero crater on Mars, as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission, lands successfully.

Perseverance (rover)

2018

Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704 crashes in the Dena sub-range in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, Resulting in 66 Deaths

Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704

2014

Revolution of Dignity: At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Revolution of Dignity

2013

Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.

Brussels Airport diamond heist

2010

WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.

WikiLeaks

2004

Up to 295 people, 182 of which being rescue workers, die near Nishapur, Iran, when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.

Nishapur

2003

192 people die when an arsonist sets fire to a subway train in Daegu, South Korea.

Daegu subway fire

2001

FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Federal Bureau of Investigation

2001

Sampit conflict: Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, ultimately resulting in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.

Sampit conflict

1991

The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.

Provisional Irish Republican Army

1983

Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.

Wah Mee massacre

1979

Richard Petty wins a then-record sixth Daytona 500 after leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crash on the final lap of the first NASCAR race televised live flag-to-flag.

Richard Petty

1977

The Xinjiang 61st Regiment Farm fire started during Chinese New Year when a firecracker ignited memorial wreaths of the late Mao Zedong, killing 694 personnel. It remains the deadliest fireworks accident in the world.

Xinjiang 61st Regiment Farm fire

1977

A thousand armed soldiers raid Kalakuta Republic, the commune of Nigerian singer Fela Kuti, leading to the death of Funmilayo Anikulapo Kuti.

Kalakuta Republic

1977

The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.

Space Shuttle Enterprise

1972

The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, (6 Cal.3d 628) invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.

Supreme Court of California

1970

The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Chicago Seven

1965

The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

The Gambia

1957

Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.

Kenya

1957

Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.

Walter James Bolton

1955

Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.

Operation Teapot

1954

The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.

Church of Scientology

1947

First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to the mountains.

First Indochina War

1946

Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors

Royal Indian Navy

1945

World War II: American and Brazilian troops kick off Operation Encore in Northern Italy, a successful limited action in the Northern Apennines that prepares for the western portion of the Allied Spring offensive.

Operation Encore

1943

World War II: The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.

Nazism

1943

World War II: Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.

Joseph Goebbels

1942

World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.

World War II

1938

Second Sino-Japanese War: During the Nanking Massacre, the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed "Nanking International Rescue Committee", and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.

Second Sino-Japanese War

1932

The Empire of Japan creates the independent state of Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) free from the Republic of China and installed former Chinese Emperor Puyi as Chief Executive of the State.

Empire of Japan

1930

While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.

January

1930

Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.

Elm Farm Ollie

1915

U-boat Campaign: The Imperial German Navy institutes unrestricted submarine warfare in the waters around Great Britain and Ireland.

U-boat campaign

1911

The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.

Airmail

1906

Édouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.

Édouard de Laveleye

1900

Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.

Second Boer War

1885

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1878

John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.

John Tunstall

1873

Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.

Bulgaria

1861

In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.

Montgomery, Alabama

1861

With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.

Unification of Italy

1814

Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Montereau.

Napoleonic Wars

1797

French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.

French Revolutionary Wars

1791

Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state.

Admission to the Union

1781

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa (present-day Ghana).

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War

1735

The ballad opera called Flora, or Hob in the Well went down in history as the first opera of any kind to be produced in North America (Charleston, S.C.)

1637

Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.

Eighty Years' War

1332

Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.

Amda Seyon I

1268

The Battle of Wesenberg is fought between the Livonian Order and Dovmont of Pskov.

Battle of Wesenberg (1268)

1229

The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.

Sixth Crusade

-3102

Kali Yuga, the fourth and final yuga of Hinduism, starts with the death of Krishna.

Kali Yuga